MeeMix Opens Beta To Public, Has Much Work Ahead

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Tel Aviv, Israel based MeeMix, which we first covered in August, is kicking-off the New Year by moving their taste-predicting Internet radio service from closed to open Beta.

Internet radio is already a very crowded space dominated by entrenched startups like Last.fm and Pandora. Smaller players and recent entrants such as SpiralFrog, Jango and Slacker are not increasing the breathing room. MeeMix wants its share of the pie, too, and is keeping its crosshairs focused on the U.S. market and its dominant revenue potential.

MeeMix’s public beta launch is marked by the addition of new features:

Meeps: Comment-based conversations users can have regarding a song, album or artist.

Station Home: Every MeeMix station now has a dedicated page allowing users to interact in its context and shape its playlist.

MeeMix claims to have doubled its music catalog, but a search for my personal favorites ‘John Coltrane’ and ‘Miles Davis’ came-up empty. The same searches on Jango and Slacker both came-up positive.

I would like to have seen the addition of “genre” to the channel creation wizard which is still limited to artist and song. A widgetized player also would have been a welcome addition, especially the desktop kind.

In my original post, I hypothesized that licensing its engine could become MeeMix’s core business. Looks like this might not be far fetched as the company says they have been approached by a mobile operator for the purpose of powering a taste-based cellular music streaming service. The company has also shared with me some interesting offline deals on the horizon that should keep MeeMix’s potential on a positive note for 2008. We’ll post another update soon. In the meantime, let us know how you think MeeMix compares to the competition.

Update: MeeMix also sent out an email to some users today saying that they will be discontinuing the service in Israel for now due to licensing issues (Thanks Orli):

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CrunchBase

OverviewJango is a fresh and interesting spin on streaming radio. It brings a social networking dynamic that can be found elsewhere, but it sets itself apart from the rest of the pack because of its music-centric nature. The social network is just an added bonus. As you can imagine, you have the option to add friends and listen to their playlists or Ã¢C~tune into' their stream whenever you like. Build …

OverviewSolution at a Glance
MeeMix services enable businesses to personalize their music and media portals, stores or applications in order to optimize conversion and customer retention and significantly boost long-tail sales.
The MeeMix solutions are based on a smart back-end engine that can be easily integrated into any existing content channel or application (itTV, IPTV, web and mobile) via a comprehensive …

OverviewPandora Radio is an internet radio service, recommendation service, and the custodian of the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on approval or disapproval of individual songs, which Pandora takes into account for future selections.
While listening, users are offered the …

OverviewSlacker is the most complete music service on Earth. The company delivers free and subscription-based access to millions of songs and hundreds of expert-programmed stations, plus news, sports and talk, on the web, mobile devices, in-car infotainment systems and consumer electronics platforms. By blending cutting-edge analytics with a team of expert music curators and content programmers, Slacker …